The Greenways Foundation promotes greenways, blueways and multi-use trails in Indiana.

Greenways Foundation invited to the Indiana General Assembly

The Greenways Foundation has been invited to the Senate Appropriations Committee this Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. to present a proposal to provide $2M annually from the General Fund to the Recreational Trails Maintenance Fund to support trail maintenance projects across the state!

The Greenways Foundation proposes that the Senate Appropriations Committee appropriate $2 million annually from the General Fund to the RTMF. We estimate the total potential need for maintaining Indiana’s trails to be approximately $16.5M, based on the total miles of trails in the state and average maintenance costs per mile. $2M would not cover the entire $16.5M need to maintain trails across the state. But it would provide funding for a small portion of the need and is meant to serve as a starting point for providing critical funding and establishing the process for distributing funding to the most necessary and worthy recipient projects.

We would greatly appreciate your support in reaching out to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee within your district, listed below. Please call and/or email the legislators below and express your support for this proposal and thanking them for their help in ensuring the future of Indiana’s trail system! A link to their contact information follows the list of committee members.

Senate Appropriations Committee Members
Chair: Sen. Luke Kenley
Ranking Member: Sen. Ryan Mishler
Majority Members:
      Sen. Philip Boots
      Sen. Ed Charbonneau
      Sen. Douglas Eckerty
      Sen. Brandt Hershman
      Sen. Patricia Miller
      Sen. Carlin Yoder
Ranking Minority Member: Sen. Karen Tallian
Minority Members:
      Sen. Earline Rogers
      Sen. Mark Stoops
      Sen. Greg Taylor

For contact information for the Senators, visit:
http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/committees/appropriations_3700.

Thanks for your continued support of the Greenways Foundation and trails across the state!

Thank you for attending!

The Greenways Foundation wants to thank everyone for the tremendous support we received during our recent luncheon. We enjoyed a memorable presentation titled “Exploring Indiana’s Trails,” given by various Hoosier greenways leaders, heard an update on our grant recipients and their progress, and recognized several outstanding leaders of the trails movement in Indiana.

We especially want to thank our luncheon sponsors, who provide generous support for trail projects across the state. Visit our Luncheon & Sponsors page to read about award winners and see our list of sponsors.

Arlinghaus named Trail Advocate of the Year

The Greenways Foundation is pleased to name Paul Arlinghaus as our 2015 Trail Advocate of the Year. His leadership, passion and commitment to natural surface trails in the State of Indiana is inspirational and it rubs off on those around him.

Paul has served as President of the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association (HMBA), a chapter of the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA), since 2006. During this time, HMBA has built and maintained more than 100 miles of single track, natural surface trails in Indiana. Paul has served as a leader of trail advocacy in Indiana for the last 10 years. He has taught hundreds of trail volunteers how to build and maintain sustainable natural surface trails throughout the state, and personally spends hundreds of hours and weekends building and maintaining trails.

In 2014, HMBA was approved by the Department of Natural Resources to start building Phase 3 in Brown County State Park, adding another 12 miles to an already impressive 30-mile trail system. In 2013, Brown County State Park was named an IMBA Epic Trail System and Paul is working on making it a Ride Center, the national recognition for mountain biking. This is bringing riders from all over the country. Paul’s vision is to build a 100-mile natural surface trail system connecting Brown County State Park, Yellowwood State Forest and the Hoosier National Forest.

Under his leadership, HMBA has successfully written and been awarded three Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grants, bringing almost $450,000 to natural surface trails in Indiana, as well as a $250,000 state trails grant. HMBA is currently working on two RTP grants for Southwestway Park in Indianapolis and O’Bannon Woods State Park in Southern Indiana. adding more than 20 miles of natural surface trails to both projects.